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volume 131, number 46
wednesday, april 11, 2012
Proposed SCC mural canceled due to irresolvable criticisms Some felt mural failed to properly represent racial minority groups
By MUNA SADEK Aggie Associate Editor
Work on the designing of a new mural for the Student Community Center (SCC) has been halted after facing criticism from SCC stakeholders and community members. The mural, which was to be painted on the North Wall of the SCC, was a quarterlong project of the Winter quarter Chicano/a Studies 171: Mural Workshop class. The nine-student class, lead by Assistant Professor Maceo Montoya, said they sought to “create a mural that would enable people to reflect and think critically about the world we live in,” on a blog documenting their design process. The three-paneled mural design would have included imagery that is symbolic of solidarity between various cultural minority groups
on campus. It included faces that blended into one another, women’s breadth dancers that would represent cultural diversity and confidence, and peacock feathers that symbolized all-seeing knowledge and openness in Ancient Greece and Buddhism, respectively. Another panel included an agricultural field inspired by Yolo County. Student columns represented the notion that the SCC is comprised of students. The next panel presents a conveyer belt of various student ID cards, that according to the class’ blog “warns of a cold impersonal institution creating manufactured students. However, students struggle free, emerging from the ID cards to become active participants in their education.” The painting of the mural required a general consensus from SCC stakeholders. The class held in-
terviews with students and staff of the SCC and held public comment sessions, where members of the public could voice any criticisms they had on the design. Student Director for Southeast Asians Furthering Education (SAFE) at the Student Recruitment and Retention Center (SRRC) Teresa Tran said she did not feel the Southeast Asian community was adequately represented in the drafts presented during the comment session. “The only representation we saw was the abbreviation ‘S.E.A’ for ‘Southeast Asian,’ but who would know what S.E.A. stands for?” she said. According to Tran, one of the wall panels was agreed upon almost entirely, with the exception of slight word changes, such as changing “LGBT” to “LGBTQIAA”
Courtesy of Emliy Thorpe
Students from the Chicano/a Studies 171: Mural Workshop class designed the mural See MURAL, page 2 that would have been located at the Student Community Center.
Local residents propose ASUCD temporarily exempt renovation of downtown tunnel Proposal in early stages, seeks community support from Shared Services Center By EINAT GILBOA Aggie News Writer
ASUCD will not have to pay $235,560 fee for 2012-13 fiscal year By HANNAH STRUMWASSER Campus News Editor
Last Thursday, ASUCD President Rebecca Sterling announced that ASUCD has been exempted from the UC Davis Shared Services Center. The Shared Services Center, which is intended to centralize all campus services in order to make them more efficient, would have cost ASUCD $235,560 a year. Sterling argued that if ASUCD had been forced to join the Shared Services Center, it would have become less efficient. “Had we joined in the center we would have been using student fees to pay for an unnecessary tax which would cost more for the same services we already do, and decrease our ability to be the largest student employer on campus,” Sterling said in an e-mail interview. Mark Champagne, former ASUCD business manager, agreed. “If the issue is about University efficiency, then ASUCD should be exempted permanently. ASUCD can process their own transactions for far less money than the Shared Services Center,” Champagne said in an e-mail interview. Students vote to decide how their fees are used within ASUCD. Champagne said that students should make sure that the university continues to honor the votes of the students. “There are legal and ethical is-
sues that surround taxing units that receive funding from student votes,” Champagne said. “In order to protect the integrity of the votes, students should be vigilant in making sure that the money is spent in a manner that is consistent with terms within each referendum.” If ASUCD had been forced to pay the fee, large ASUCD units such as the ASUCD Coffee House (CoHo) and the Bike Barn could have seen a rise in prices. Smaller units, such as KDVS and Picnic Day, could also have been negatively affected. Former ASUCD President Adam Thongsavat emphasized the importance of ASUCD’s services on campus, and said that the Shared Services tax would have inhibited ASUCD’s ability to serve the campus. “With everything from concerts to student-run organizations to the Aggie, it’s amazing the volume and the quantity and the reach we [ASUCD] have compared to any other campus department,” Thongsavat said. Both Sterling and Thongsavat met with Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi to discuss the issue, and she later made the decision to exempt ASUCD from the Shared Services Center. While ASUCD is exempt for the 2012-13 fiscal year, no decisions have been made about future years. HANNAH STRUMWASSER can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.
Michael Bisch, co-president of the Downtown Davis Business Association, and Dr. Stephen Nowicki, a local pediatrician, have conceptualized a new archway to replace the one that beckons drivers off the Interstate 80 and into Davis. “Michael Bisch was the inspirational force behind this idea,” Nowicki said. “He had the idea to convert the roadway into a mechanism to pass into a more childfriendly environment, like taking a step back in time. He asked me if I’d be willing to sketch some ideas.”
Yash Naggda / Aggie
See TUNNEL, page 5 A local doctor and businessman are looking to remodel the tunnel near In-N-Out.
Fig+Axle reading series showcases local poets UC Davis English department provides creative outlet for writers By DOMINICK COSTABILE
Aggie Features Writer
Many of UC Davis’ student-run clubs typically meet, greet and operate solely through the campus community. However, the UC Davis English department’s graduate reading series, Fig+Axle, hopes to be an exception to this idea, as it unites the institutional atmosphere of UC Davis with the surrounding Davis community. Fig+Axle began as a reading series which exclusively showcased the work of writers and poets in Voorhies
Hall. Now, the club is doing things differently. The monthly reading format has been retained, but this time the reading series will move around town, incorporating various communities outside campus. Fig+Axle also now advertises upcoming writing and poetry-reading events on its Tumblr page. At the reading events, English department graduate students share their written material with peers, which is an audience that is beginning to expand beyond primarily other UC Davis graduate students to
See READING, page 6
Eleanor Liu
courtesy
Stafford Loan interest rate will expire this summer Low- to middle-income students will see an interest rate increase in July By MEE YANG
Aggie News Writer
About 8 million low- to middle-income students will see an increase in interest rate of the subsiJoe Chan / Aggie dized Stafford Loan when it expires Students have delivered thousands of letters to Congress, this upcoming July. The current rate is 3.4 percent; it will increase to 6.8 asking them to halt the Stafford Loan interest rate hikes.
Today’s weather Chance of thunder High 59 Low 47
Forecast Keep your heads up Aggies - we’ll see some warmer temperatures early next week. In the mean time, get ahead on your reading, homework, and any TV shows you watch while the weather continues to remain cold and rainy. Kenneth Doss, atmospheric science major Aggie Forecasting Team
percent by this summer. According to CALPIRG Federal Higher Education Advocate Rich Williams, this issue is a big priority in Congress at the moment, which is working to keep higher education accessible. According to opencongress. org, the interest rate for the subsi-
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dized Stafford Loan decreased over the years due to the College Cost Reduction Act of 2007, which “seeks to lower the cost of higher education by reducing lender subsidies by $19 billion and then investing those funds in programs that increase
See LOAN, page 2
In other news, Santorum is dripping out. OOPS I meant dropping. Michelle Huey